I'm in a bit of a pattern: big doctor's appointment Monday. Last week: the first ultrasound looked good –
"looked good" for me meant the impossibly good fortune of it NOT BEING ECTOPIC –
followed by euphoria, or something like it, followed by a week of diminishing confidence. Now that it's Saturday, my next appointment on Monday looms. We're supposed to see the heartbeat. I'm nervous again. Even though I have every reason to hope. Not to get my numbers on, because nobody reads it when I do, but really: early positive betas, betas over 100 at the 14-day mark, 100% rise, and age of egg means approximately 90% chance of live birth for me and this little peanut.
Which reminds me. As a jaded IVF veteran, I always rolled my eyes when reading pregnant bloggers' cute names for their babies in utero. "Bug," "bean," little code names, just made me urpy. (Of course, now I'm feeling a little urpy all the time but that's something to celebrate). Complete with little love notes written directly to the, uh, uterine entity, asking it to "stick around for, oh, eight more months." et cetera.
Like I said: jaded. I am very jaded. Add jaded to unpregnant and I had zero tolerance for anything cute or hopeful. And I'm sure it wasn't the cuteness of the names but my unpregnantness that really bugged me.
But I do understand the urge to name the uterine entity in a way that acknowledges its status. It gives us a little distance. We're not ready to think of him/her as Caitlin or Jaden yet – in my case it will never, ever be Caitlin or Jaden since those names are soooooo not my cup of tea – and that's safer in case of a loss. So I can see how people decide to just call it Monkey or some such thing.
So as my jaded-ness melts like Frosty the Snowman, I'm naming. I'm leaning towards something secret-agent-ish, like "the passenger." Helps remind me that we're trying not to tell, though I think post-heartbeat my resolve is going to crumble in a big way.
Any thoughts on the naming of uterine entities?
The Other Shoe 
June 21, 2008 at 9:35 am
We called my second one Thor after the god of thunder since I was so urpy. My father called my first Throckmorten. I go for names that are impossible and old fashioned. I loved the looks that people gave me, not sure if I would seriously call the baby that when he was born.
June 21, 2008 at 11:52 am
I’m still a big fan of Uno in honor of the underdog beagle and what will hopefully be your first child. Please don’t think my suggestion of using a dog’s name is demeaning – we can all relate to being the underdog.
June 21, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I love Thor. That is awesome.
I did not have a name for any of mine in utero…except for Miles, who I was convinced was a girl so I called him Ava out loud for like 5 months.
I think with my first I may just have addressed her with nicknames I use now for my kids, ‘babe’ ‘kiddo’ ‘sweetie’ ‘lovie’ I dunno…I call them names all day ‘smootchies’ ‘pookie’ ‘banana head’ yeah..I call them names all time.
that does not answer your question….erm….what was the question? Is it still not all about me?
oy.
let us know how your monday goes!
June 22, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I get the need to name it something. It took me until about 15 weeks I think, then we came up with Pob – passenger on board. I note that smarshy is calling his ‘that other baby’ or TOB. Other infertiles have called theirs frosty, smacky, fitz-hume, millbarge, murdock, there are others. Either something non-sentimentally, like Pob or Tob, or something odd and quirky like Thor, throckmorten or millbarge etc. A friend called her bump Angus. Take some slightly odd name and see if it fits?
June 22, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Meg was Peanut after we got to the chapter of “What to Freak Out About This Week” (aka “Your Pregnancy Week by Week”) where it looked to us that the baby was about the size of a peanut. Heidi was Boo Boo because I read about a couple who used a combination of their nicknames for each other. Since Hans and I each call the other Boo, Boo Boo seemed not only adorable, but apropos.
One of the Homefirst doctors insisted that, whether you or not we knew the gender of the baby, we use an actual name, so Meg was actually Fred for a time, as well.
June 23, 2008 at 5:49 pm
My mom often suggested “Farquar” and I still like that one even tho we didn’t use it.